Pages

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Well, it has been a month since I last wrote. I honestly can't believe how fast this month went. I have been super busy. I have gotten a lot accomplished this past month. I have done tons of classroom lessons on bullying, tattling, friendship, and anger management. I have been meeting with students individually and in groups. I am working on setting up some friendship groups over lunch. It is a challenge to figure out how to maximize the time that I spend with the students. By starting some groups, I hope to reach more students.

My biggest project at the moment is starting groups for students who have an incarcerated parent. The students are so excited about being in a group that supports children of incarcerated parents. They have been great about getting their permission forms back and are eager for the groups to start. Their enthusiasm and excitement about the groups is contagious. I can't wait to get started.

I am also collaborating with the librarian. She was interested in doing a lesson on biographies using laptops with third grade. I asked her if she would be interested in working together so that I could do some career lessons with third grade. We decided we would have the students find a career they were interested in and write a biography of a person with that career. I introduced the third graders to a website called "Paws in Jobland," which is a cute career website created by Bridges http://paws.bridges.com/cfnc.htm. The students took an interest inventory that generated potential career clusters they would be interested in. From there, the students were able to get a more in-depth look at the careers through videos and descriptions on the website. The students loved the "Paws" website. I am in the process of looking for more interactive career websites so the students have additional career information.

It has been an awesome journey so far. I welcome the challenges that each new day brings! I love working with the students. They are truly what my job is all about. Each day reaffirms to me that school counseling is a perfect fit for me.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Last week was a blur. Monday and Tuesday were full days, Wednesday was a snow day, Thursday was a half-day for students with a two-hour-delay, and Friday was a half-day for teachers. I got a surprising amount of work done. I set classroom guidance lessons for the coming week, contacted parents, went to a PSSA training, attended student assistance meetings, and started to work on a few projects.

One project that I started to work on is creating a school-wide anti-bullying initiative. I want to create more of a community at the school. I have a third grade teacher and her student teacher working with me. We spent some time Friday making a sign that says "No Dissing!" that we hung in the main lobby of the school. The sign is black, orange, and white, which are the school colors. I will post a picture of it soon. I got the idea for the sign from www.nonamecallingweek.org, which is a great website. The website has information, ideas, lesson plans, and lots of free materials.

I like the idea of creating a school-wide initiative because I believe it will create a sense of community, belonging, and school spirit. I want the students to be invested in the campaign. I was thinking of making paw prints (the school mascot is a lion) to give to students who show good character. I might make a saying like "Lion Cubs have Character." I want to create a bulletin board explaining what being a cub of character is. I also want to do classroom lessons on character education, diversity, bullying, and friendship.

Lastly, I had the idea of doing a play involving the third graders. I found a play on the Teaching Tolerance website called "Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together." I think it would be neat for third graders to present the play to younger students, school staff, and invite their families. The principal really liked my idea. I need to solidify the plans for it and see if the third grade teachers would willing to participate.

This coming week is packed with classroom lessons, individual sessions with students, a district meeting, a bullying seminar, and a career education seminar. I am really excited for everything that I am working on and the opportunities of the weeks ahead!

Search School Counselor Blog

Subscribe via email

Subscribe To

About the Author

I am a middle school counselor and founder of School Counselor Blog, a place where school counselors share innovative ideas, creative lessons, and quality resources! I am a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.